New law creates minimum sentence for ankle bracelet violators

A bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday will put convicted sex offenders back in jail for a minimum of 180 days if they cut off court-ordered GPS ankle bracelets.

The new law requires that offenders who remove their monitoring devices to serve the additional felony sentence in county jail before returning to parole.

Paroled sex offenders have received lighter sentences for cutting off the devices since the implementation of prison realignment. Prior to the passage of AB 109, paroled offenders who discarded the ankle bracelets faced up to a full year in state prison. But since 2011, parolees who violated the terms of their release are housed in overcrowded county prisons, where sentences are often shaved by days or weeks to ease the overburdened system.

“When sex offenders know that there are little or no repercussions for cutting off their GPS monitoring devices, it’s time to strengthen the deterrent,” Sen Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach, said in a statement.

Lieu authored the legislation, Senate Bill 57.

After serving the additional time, offenders will again be released and monitored by GPS.

“Real deterrents for sex offenders drastically reduce the likelihood they will commit another crime. SB 57 now gives these sex offenders second thoughts about roaming free while on parole,” Lieu said.